Placement of individual detectors on a player to sense laser simulated bullets is a problem for close combat training. The laser beam used to simulate firing is so small as it leaves the transmitter, that even having detectors spaced ten inches apart can cause a player to miss his target if aimed between the two detectors. To help this issue, the laser beam may be made as wide as practical. If the beam is too divergent, the laser beam intensity diminishes quickly with distance and will not reach out to the effective range of the host weapon that it is trying to simulate. Further, a wide beam can cause multiple hits to be detected whenever separate targets are close together, and may even cause false hits to be detected, reducing the effectiveness of training.
Some prior devices use multiple lasers, one with a low divergent beam and a second one with a wide beam. Laser transmitter design modifications are made to provide the different width beams, but such devices allow better close in firing operation and fewer detectors may be used on the target. Even with multiple lasers, care is taken with placement of detectors so that a shot between detectors will be detected. Such devices still utilize a large set of detectors spaced close together. These detectors are positioned near the center of mass so that a laser beam, firing at that point can hit its mark. The number of detectors and the separation between each of them in a cluster is dependant on the laser beam characteristics at the minimum range to be using in training.